Tony Rice - Manzanita

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Free Music Notes for Manzanita

Free Music Review: The Best "UnBanjo" Album in existence
Hit: 5 Stars

Manzanita is a land-mark album from the "unbanjo" era. It includes complicated and lightning fast "Dawg/SpaceGrass" instrumentals such as the title cut, inventive orchestrations of traditional fiddle tunes like "BlackBerry Blossom", insightful sparse arrangements of contemporary folk classics like "Old Train" and "Home From the Forest" and Bluegrass classics like "Hold Whatcha Got", all sans banjo. Tony's vocals are from the era when his voice was strongest and most passionate, and the harmonies are Everly-Brotherlike-Tight from Ricky Skaggs and others. The other instrumental gunslingers include Grisman, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas.

In the liner notes to "Cold on the Shoulder" - another brilliant Rice collection - Tony says that he considered COTS to be a follow-up to Manzanita. I recommend that album highly as well. The style is similar, differing only in that the "unbanjo" approach was abandoned with the appearance of 5-string wizard Bela Fleck. Bela adds banjo to the sequel to the "unbanjo" project.

This album is "desert island" material. When Allison Kraus won 4 CMA awards the year of her breakthrough album "Now That I've Found You" she specifically cited Rice and Skaggs as major influences in one of her acceptance speeches. Manzanita MUST have been one of those influential recordings.

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